One of the first items you procure in Little Inferno, a game primarily concerned with the burning of objects in a big fireplace, is a photograph. You can choose an image to project onto the photo paper, either from a stock set of pictures or from your computer's folders, before hovering a flame over it to set it alight. I passed my mouse over numerous personal photos, trying to decide which one to set alight. An old love interest. A current love interest. Photos from press trips, from cherished family moments, from adventures around Australia. I chose a photo of myself in the end and slowly ignited it. As my face burned, the camera I'd placed into the Little Inferno Entertainment Fireplace ignited and flashed, taking a photo of a protagonist unseen up to that point. Both photos burned.
Little Inferno is predicated on these moments, and the assumption that setting various items on fire and watching them burn for three-odd hours will prove interesting. As far as objectives go, the game couldn't be simpler - you buy items from a catalogue, burn them to collect the coins they release, and try to figure out which items need to be burned together to fulfil the long list of combos you've been given. To give one example, the combo titled legal Charges' is earned when the player orders and burns 'Someone Else's Credit Card' and 'Lawyer's Briefcase' together. More items and combos are unlocked as you go on, until by the end the whole catalogue is a little daunting and the combos list annoyingly vague.
But the combos are just there so that people won't get into stupid arguments over whether Little Inferno is a game or not. The game's true intentions are framed through its numerous narrative devices, whether they be the letters that periodically pop up in your mail alongside the packages you've ordered, the aforementioned emergent moments that the flames provoke, or the complete change-of-pace ending that ties everything together in interesting ways. There's something extremely sinister happening in the world of Little Inferno. The game's greatest, creepiest moments come from the letters you receive from a demanding little girl who has become entranced by her own fireplace, but you'll also frequently receive communications from a weatherman that hint towards something sinister brewing, and strange communications from the
fireplace's manufacturer.
And, naturally, it's kind of fun to burn things. Objects all react differently to the flames; burning an ear of corn and seeing it burst into popcorn is quite cute, while seeing a creepy rabbit doll stagger around as though aware of its imminent doom is encouragingly distressing. It may seem like a game for your inner pyromaniac, but stare deeply enough into Little Inferno's flames and you'll discover that there's a bit more to it than that.
Developer: Tomorrow Corporation
Publisher: Tomorrow Corporation
Web: tomorrowcorporation.com/littleinferno
